Mike Ashley Embarrasses Newcastle – Players In Turmoil

It was a surprise, make that shock, make that a big shock when Newcastle announced yesterday that Chris Hughton had been sacked by Newcastle.

Chris Hughton – too ethical and good for a Mike AshleyI had gone to breakfast with my son and didn’t get back until 10:00 am US time (3:00 pm Newcastle time), and of course the news had broken by then.

It looks like Mike Ashley had only been waiting for a reason to get rid of the 51 year-old Londoner – he turns 52 this coming Saturday.

To say we need a more experienced manager, when the lads have 19 points from their first 16 games with some tremendous performances – a 6-0 thrashing of Aston Villa and a 5-1 thrashing of Sunderland – are wins that will live in history.

But with managers like Avram Grant and Gerard Houllier not finding it easy in the Premier League this season, to say Newcastle need a more experienced manager is a load of tripe.

It’s another lie to Newcastle fans, and ti seems that when the Board said they would re-negotiate Chris Hughton’s contract at the end of the year – we believed them – but that seems to have been another lie.

How many lies has Mike Ashley now told Newcastle fans since he arrived at the club?

It seems that things at the club are not as solid as we thought, and it seems that Chris Hughton, with his wonderful man management and top coaching ability, was able to keep everybody together – but not with much help from the owner.

This is what a source has told the Newcastle Journal this morning

“It is so shoestring here, that the players are not receiving any bonuses, and I am sure that has never happened at any club, at any time, ever before.” “That is pretty hard on the young players, especially at this time of year. It doesn’t help with morale, no bonuses for winning, or anything. No bonuses at all.”

“The club didn’t seem to want to give Chris Hughton a new contract or allow him to appoint his No. 2, and now they want an experienced manager, so one can only hope they have the budget for that, or else they will end up with someone out of work and desperate to take whatever they are offered.”

“It has been this way for a while, mind you, but the players have been willing to play for Chris because he is so well liked, you couldn’t find a nicer guy if you tried. So there is so much going on behind the scenes that you would hardly credit the fact that the team has produced some good results this season, and it’s never easy for a team which has just come up.”

“Everyone believes Chris did a good job getting the club back into the big time, but he wasn’t even rewarded with a new contract. This hasn’t gone down well here.” “The sacking of Chris is just the tip of the iceberg, there is total confusion behind the scenes. No one knows if Mike Ashley is selling the club or what he is planning.”

We don’t think it’s a big hardship for players not to be on bonuses – when everybody else is and has been suffering badly with the economy – that’s going back to the past- when we wasted money like crazy.

And of course the players are very upset by all of this, and it’s starting to look like two years ago, when there was complete turmoil at the club, and it affected the results of the club – and we ended up relegated.

We thought Mike Ashley had learned from those stupid mistakes he made back then – but we were wrong.

How many fans think we’ll get anything out of the game against Liverpool on Saturday – we don’t have much hope that we can even get a draw.

Sorry to bring up the fact our players are now supposed to be preparing for a crucial game on Saturday, but they are as shocked and upset as we Newcastle fans are, by the latest stupiduty of a certain Mike Ashley.

Ah that’s a shame, most of them will have to make do with their 30k – 90k wages per week then.

I was appalled by the West brom game. The players never even got started and we hear the same old ”we’ll learn from this”

Unfortunately, heard ”we’ll learn from this” too many times this season and then we do the same thing over again. If the players cared about Chris as much as they say they do, they wouldn’t have turned out that shambolic display. Playing Danny Guthrie and letting him take our set pieces infuriates me for a start. I like Hughton, he did a great job but there are obviously internal goings on the fans don’t know about. The football club is a business and as much as I hate to admit it, Fat boy is pretty good in business. He has learned from his mistakes and if the reports in the metro are to believed, he is gonna spend a few quid.

Shame Ben Arfa got injured as it would be a totally different season, well done to chris for bringing him and PL signing of the season Tiote in and good luck for the future.

We have to start getting real, although Chris was a great guy, done great for us, he seemed to be tactically inept. Time for a bigger name like jol to come in and attract his players from holland. He would be excellent, and we would have to praise the fat cockney bastard for it.

IF Ashley and co appoint the free Martin Jol and IF they back him with the reported (metro) £20 million for new players then I see CH’s sacking as a positive move to try and move the club forward.

CH was definitely suspect with tactics and team selections and although I would have given him more time, I would have also considered doing the same.

I don’t think this is as bad as some people think – BUT only if we appoint Jol, or perhaps Koeman or Rijkaard.

All three are free agents, all are Dutch, all have massive experience in Europe and all like their teams to play with attacking flair.

I personally have a liking for Rijkaard, he did well at Barcelona and could easily convince some of the worlds better players to come to us. Jol, second choice and Koeman third but again with Koeman, he’s no mug.

My absolute dread is that Ashley feels that it would be a good choice to bring in Curbishly, Pardew, Strachan, Southgate, O’Neill or anyone else similar. None of them will take us forward, only sideways or backwards.

Jol is the current favourite and probably rightly so, he ticks all of the boxes for me but I’d also welcome Rijkaard.

On another note, what is Mr Guillit up to these days? Another Dutchman…could he come back – sexy football anyone?

Beardsley will get the job full-time. He has always publicly backed Ashley and is probably on less money than Hoots was. To be honest I rather Beardsley got the job than journeymen managers like O’Neill, Jol or Pardew.

Im sorry that Chris has not been treated with the respect he has earnt over his time with us.

But to be fair to Hoots, he has done a bloody good job and the only good thing I can see for Chris is that he must be a serious contender for the next England manager, if not that, then he certainly wont be out of work for long, thats for sure.

All i can say is thank you Chris: Thank You for being daft enough to put up with Ca$hely for so long, Thank You for bringing us straight back up, and in my eyes, Thank You for the brilliant job you have done so far this season.

To be honest Hoots, and I love this club, you are better off without the toon circus in your life.

So Ashley is (maybe) going to give the new manager 20 million. The new manager will probably be able to bring in good players with that. Hoots would have been able to bring in fantastic players with that sort of money, more of the likes of Tiote, Ben Arfa.

You need to re-assess your goals beased on performance and those around you.

There are 100% European places up for grabs with the start the likes of Liverpool and Everton have made, if we had held our lead against Stoke and put some effort in against Blackpool, we’d be in one of those spots.

Survival is the priority, but why not push yourselves. If I decided to just scrape by in my work people won’t be happy, if i constantly aim for the top and push myself to exceed expectations then my boss will be happy.

If we aim for europe we will definately survive, if we aim for survival we’ll probably get relegated, it’s all mentality.

We all suspected CH would be shafted by the fat man did we not deep down? It is in the nature of the beast! Chris was an honest and down to earth professional whose man management proved to be beyond reproach. Once again Ashley has shown his spivvy barrow boy mentality to us all and I feel that what he has done to CH is a shameful disgrace and a sordid blot on the landscape of British soccer. CH only lost 17 games so what is the problem? We are in the middle of a table where we hoped to be first season back too. Who next? Well going by the fat man’s tight arse wallet economics its going to be someone CHEAP! So forget a big or more experienced name. Going by recent comments in the media many of our choices have scuppered their chances already. Get out of toon fat man and take your gangster football fantasy world with you please.

I don’t go with slating individuals … I’m not walking in their shoes. So the rhetoric against Mike Ashley hasn’t won me over. But this move to sack Chris Hughton is totally baffling. I just don’t see Ashley’s business rationale. Hughton did as well as most Premiership managers can claim to have done/ be doing, & better than some. He’s surely cheaper, and doesn’t rock the boat. The thought of Curbishley, Pardew, or Strachan thrills me as much as an enema, and managers with genuinely ‘more experience’ (that is, in winning at a higher level) just aren’t going to be financed or otherwise tempted.

Just when I thought that it was ‘safe’ to begin getting emotionally attached to following the Magpies again! I don’t whether it’s the fans or Mike Ashley who needs counselling the most.

Here we go again…Some toon fans geting carried away thinking we should be in europe. What we need think about is we missed 5 first team players at the weekend and it showed. ( Barton Nolan Wiliamson Colo and the long tearm HBA) Any team would struggle missing 5 of their top players and considering how bad we played at west brom to get ahead of ourselves thinking * we could be top six* is crazy. Our squad is in far better shape than 14 months ago when CH took over on full time basis. In my opinon hes mad some very decent buys on next to nothing budget. Given time im sure he would have replaced the likes of Perch Routledge and Smith with players that in time, would help us push on for the top six. IF we get Jol and IF hes spends money maybe we could realise this goal sooner….IF he brings in pardew or likewise we will be back in the fizzy pop league with the smoggies next year

I am no fan of Ashley and think CH was a good man,but this is the right decision I feel.We have struggled at home apart from 2 great games,we are playing awful away at the moment too like at Bolton and WBA.How long did Ashley wait to get more experience in.He has learnt that it is no good near the end of the season as look what happened last time we went down.The thing that got me about CH was number 23 bleated on about not starting,so he dropped in form players to play this lazy man.How many times have the players influenced his team selections.Or his formation. Sorry but like I said Chris is a good man and I wish him well,but lets be honest even joke in hear would have got us promoted last season.Too many mistakes this season,if Ashley wants to sell the club he needs us in the premier league.All the best Chris and thanks for the effort. Now then.O’Neil is not a makem fan he only liked Charley Hurley so that can be put to bed. Jol could be good for us.As Curbishley could as he fits what Ashley likes,used to working with no money. A big NO NO is Pardew as Chris was better option imo. Dark Horses please may I be wrong McLaren,Sven,Wilkins

Anybody on here saying the sacking was a good decision needs their head looked at.

no tranfer budget, a tiny back room staff and CH won the championship at a canter and pullos off some cracker results in the Premier league. Barton was our key man during our best performances and we’ve been without him. Our squad is thin and none could have done a better job,

The Toon have never had a good board and that’s where our problems have always stemed from. We have to hope that someday we will get the owners we deserve. I’m sorry Chris, its shameful you done a great job and worked your ass off, just to get a kickin from an inept fat lump of useless sh*t.

health update

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and completed four months of chemotherapy in late July and will continue to have hormone treatment.

After having various cat scans and a full bone scan recently, I met with the medical oncologist yesterday for a review of my condition.

The cancer in the bones has stabilized and has not spread further, and my PSA count has decreased significantly to being less than 0.1.

I am still recovering from some of the side effects of the chemo treatment - mainly severe fatigue and exhaustion.

Stage 4 cancer is not curable so I will continue to have cat scans and bone scans every four months to ensure the disease is not spreading.

Hopefully, the hormone treatment will keep working for a while yet and then we will switch to some other treatments that have been developed over the last few years.

It is as it is - I accept it - and will do the very best I can under the circumstances.

Ed Harrison

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